


Someone New

by hazey_sloths



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2019-01-30 04:27:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12646068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazey_sloths/pseuds/hazey_sloths
Summary: Based on a prompt:What if Neil met and befriended one of the foxes on the run? Or maybe later, when he was in the process of burning Mary's body and car?





	Someone New

New York City was only supposed to be a pit stop; the city put both of them on a cliff’s edge and neither could spend more than half an hour asleep before rechecking the locks on the door. When sitting, Mary’s right hand consistently traced the small gun strapped to her ankle. He could still hear the sound of the velcro, tearing away as she adjusted and readjusted the strap before walking nervously out of the motel room. They had driven three days to get here; Mary had some business that could not wait any longer.

The business was taking longer than expected but she promised it was necessary. She had connections here, ones that would help bury their past lives even deeper than the fourteen cities before New York had. Every morning in this city had started the same and this morning was no different. Just before shutting the door firmly behind her, she warned him against leaving the motel room. She waited until she heard the bolt slide into place with heavy finality and he listened to her steps fade away, cut off with a bang from the stairwell door. 

His steps made no sound as he crossed the room to watch her from the window. She crossed the parking lot a few minutes later, hand clutched tightly around her purse, head held up with as much confidence as she could fake. He knew that behind her tight smile, she was sizing up every person she walked past, everyone who walked to and from their own cars. Life on the run had made her too nervous for any other habit and rightfully so. His father’s people had come knocking once before and they had barely made it out alive.

Once the car turned cautiously into traffic and disappeared down the street, Sam slipped the motel key into his pocket with the day’s burner phone and made sure his own gun was snug against his hip. He wasn’t the best shot but Mary had trained him well enough that if he had a moment to breathe, he could hit something important enough to give himself some more time. She would kill him herself if she discovered he had wandered out alone. But he would be sure to answer her hourly check-ins and get back to the motel before she did. He wouldn’t stray for, or at least that was what he had told himself.

He had never really been lost before. Of course, he had never really been alone in such a large city before.He was sure that he could remember his way back but the area was almost entirely unfamiliar and he was beginning to grow nervous. He could remember driving past that doughnut shop four days ago but he couldn’t remember where they had gone from there. Careless and stupid. He was never careless and stupid. His mother was going to be furious.

“Hey, kid, are you lost?”

Sam stiffened, backed away quickly from the older boy who materialized in front of him. The kid came from money, Sam could tell. He was tall and stringy, dark eyes bright with tiny building reflections dancing inside. His black hair was curly and wild. His wardrobe probably cost more than anything Sam would ever own in his lifetime.

“Jesus, kid. Didn’t mean to startle you,” the boy said. He gave a lopsided smile and scratched his left arm a little roughly. The sleeve of his shirt rode up just a little and a dark, bruising circle peeked out from under. It disappeared under the fabric as the boy saw Sam looking.His smile widened. “Goddamn blood drives, y’know?”

“Oh, yeah,” Sam said. He didn’t know. He’d never given blood before, at least not willingly.

“You good, dude?” The boy took a step closer, stopping immediately as Sam took a quick step back. He held up his hands. “Yo, man, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m Matt.”

Sam didn’t trust Matt, though he was completely inclined to. The boy’s ability to smile so quickly was something Sam envied greatly. Matt probably meant well but his mother’s warning tone grated against the back of his skull like a jackhammer. Say nothing. Act normal. Don’t leave this motel room, Sam.

“I’m fine, just walking back to my motel,” Sam said. He immediately gave himself a mental kick. He should’ve left it at fine. He wasn’t sure why he said anything. He should have just walked away.

Matt laughed a little, rubbed the back of his head with his hand. He was incredibly fidgety and Sam, who always watched people’s hands and eyes and feet, was having trouble keeping up with how much Matt moved.

“You’re a tourist? Of course, you’re lost then. Let me help you out, dude,” Matt said. He turned quickly on his heel, oblivious to the flinch his sudden movement drew out of Sam. When he realized no one was following him, he looked back. “Look, I mean nothing by it. Just trying to help you out… What was your name?”

There were probably fifteen different answers to that question. Sixteen if he went by his legal name. Seventeen if he went the name his mother whispered over pillows as she brushed her fingers gently through his hair when she thought he was sleeping. Seventeen answers and all he said was “Sam.”

Matt held out his hand, a safe distance away for Sam to feel comfortable to make the choice of shaking it or not. “Sam, nice to meet you. Let me help you find your motel? I’d like to feel like a decent person for once.”  
__________

Neil wondered if perhaps Matt remembered meeting him in New York City, leading him around for hours and pointing out the random streets that gave him vague memories of his mother, Randy. He’d yelled at the pigeons, made ridiculous stories up about the people they had passed, and for once in a long time, Neil had felt like a real kid with a real friend. It had been years, so many memories stretched between that moment and this one, so many names, so many different faces and cities. Matt had been coming down from a six-hour high, strung out and looking for the next wave to ride when he’d seen Neil wandering down the street.

Matt looked better now, less like a string bean, less like the wind would snap his nutrient-starved, drug-ridden body in half. He’d filled out considerably, not a surprise since he was a backliner for the Foxes. He wore short sleeves now, the dark scars of his drug history displayed fully. Neil could not tell if it was a badge of honor or a dark reminder of where he could end up if he didn’t continue down the road he was on.

The chances of even a spark of recognition were so low he almost didn’t feel the small pain of disappointment as the boy held out his hand to Neil for the second time in a lifetime. “Matt Boyd. I’m a junior this year, and I’m the Foxes’ starting backliner. You must be Neil.”

I know you, Neil wanted to say. But the absence of his mother was still acrid smoke in his throat. 

Say nothing. Don’t leave this motel room, Sam. In another lifetime, he didn’t. In another lifetime, perhaps she would have lived.

So he shook Matt’s hand and said nothing because for once, he would listen to her and keep his mouth shut.


End file.
